Scenes from a Summer
by The Enduring Man-Child
Summary: Kim and Ron post-Graduation being BFBF's. A longer summary is in the "Proscenium." Rating may go up depending on the content of future chapters.
1. Proscenium

**Scenes from a Summer**

**by "The Enduring Man-Child"**

_**All standard disclaimers apply.**_

**Proscenium**

The following series of vignettes are set during the summer following Kim and Ron's graduation and the Lorwardian invasion. This is a change from my previous KP stories which are not really set at any particular point in the series.

These vignettes assume the following: that the Possibles are staying with the Stoppables while their house is being rebuilt, that Ron is now (thanks to his heroics) welcome at any university of his choice, and that the chaos of the invasion and its aftermath has caused almost all universities to postpone their next terms (giving Ron and Kim time to unwind, recover, and decide on their plans).

What follows is a series of slice-of-life vignettes within this context. There is no drama, no harrowing adventures, and, unlike many Kim/Ron fan fics, no re-enactment of the Kama Sutra. They are merely glimpses of Kim and Ron, lifelong best friends who are now so much more, and their everyday interactions.

Please be advised that there will be some humor, some poking fun at myself, and perhaps even some breaking of the "fourth wall"-lots of good fun, and very little seriousness.

Enjoy.

Thanks to rye dot bread (whose screen name for some strange reason won't show up when spelled conventionally) for agreeing to be my new beta.


	2. Of Wonks and Monks

**Scenes from a Summer**

**by "The Enduring Man-Child"**

_**All standard disclaimers apply.**_

**Scene i—Of Wonks and Monks**

"So Ron, have you been thinking of what you might want to major in?" Kim Possible asked her BFBF. "Business maybe, so you can run your own Bueno Nacho or Smarty-Mart?"

Kim was lying in the couch in the Stoppables' living room while Ron was sitting in the floor before her. They were taking a break from looking through the bundles of college acceptance letters they were both now receiving by engaging in a little channel surfing, though only Rufus—perched atop Ron's shoulder—seemed to be paying much attention to the screen.

"Well, KP, I was, but just last Sunday morning I was watching the tube and discovered a bon-diggity way to make a living I never heard of before."

"Really?" she asked him. "I suppose new careers are developing all the time in today's world."

"You betcha, KP," Ron replied with satisfaction. "Anyway, after seeing this guy on TV I'm really thinking of preparing to become a policy wonk."

Kim raised an eyebrow. "A what?"

"A policy wonk, Kimele. It's great! You see," he turned and faced her, "a policy wonk is someone who spends all his time cogitating about the pressing issues of the day. Then he comes up with a solution and tells everyone."

"Ron, where did you get this idea?" Kim wanted to know.

"Last Sunday morning while you guys were at church I was watching 'Sunday Morning with Domenikos Theotokopoulos,' and-"

"Oh, one of those 'talking head' shows," Kim realized.

"That's right! Anyway, he had this guy on who he said was a policy wonk, and he had all the solutions to the world problems the host brought up." Ron sighed in satisfaction. "That has _got_ to be one sweet job."

"But Ron, I don't think anyone really listens to those people," Kim pointed out.

"Of course not, Kim!" Ron actually sounded as if he were explaining something to a five year old. "That's why we still have problems! If everyone listened to the wonks, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Doesn't sound like a very useful job, then," she observed dryly. "Besides, who would pay you to sit around all day thinking up solutions to problems that no one has any intention of using?"

"Um—the government?" Ron asked hopefully.

"I don't think there's a Federal Department of Wonking—at least not yet," Kim told him.

"I don't get it," Ron said. "Then who pays these guys?"

"I assume most of them work as consultants for various institutes and foundations," Kim answered.

"Ah, then that's for me!" Ron exclaimed happily.

Kim sighed. "You know Ron, there was a time when I thought I knew what was best for you, but I like to think I've grown a little since then." She shuddered at the thought of a certain haircut she'd seen to it he'd gotten. "I tell you what—you pursue whatever dream you want to and I'll support you all the way...and you do the same for me. Okay?"

"For real?" he asked his Type A girlfriend.

"For real," she assured him. "If decide you want to manage a Smarty-Mart, I'll back you up one hundred percent. If you want to open a fast food chain, I'll be your first customer—your first _salad _customer," she added hastily. "You want to be a policy wonk? Then wonk away, and if anyone doesn't listen to you, that's _his_ problem! The main thing is that whatever you're doing, and whatever I'm doing, we'll be doing them together."

Ron was genuinely touched.

"Wow...I mean...KP, I don't know what to say," he said truthfully.

"And you'll support me in whatever I want to do too?" she asked.

"You know it!" he responded enthusiastically.

For a moment there was no sound other than the television set, which was set so low that Rufus was straining to hear it.

"Um...you know, KP," Ron said at last, a bit unsure as to whether he should bring the subject up, "in all probability one bat of your eyelashes would break my Feeble Will, so that I would major in whatever you told me to."

"_Ron!_" exclaimed a blushing Kim, "I couldn't do that to you! It would be a ferociously unethical use of my Magical Female Powers(tm)!"

"That doesn't seem to stop most girls from doing stuff like that," Ron observed sullenly.

"Of course not," Kim replied, "but then, I am not most girls. I am-" (and here she suddenly punched her Kimmunicator, producing a fanfare, and jumped off the couch to strike a dramatic pose, shocking Ron and causing Rufus to fall off his shoulder) "-Kim the Merciful, shewing pity and compassion to the humble and brokenhearted among the Lesser Endowed Gender, yet breaking the hearts of the froward unto the third and fourth generation. Now bask in the glow of my unmerited favor, Unworthy One!" She regarded him with an arched eyebrow.

Ron stared open mouthed for a few moments and then began to chuckle, eventually giving up and giving in to hearty laughter.

"Okay Kim!" he said, wiping the tears from his eyes as Rufus resumed his perch on his shoulder, "point taken! Just how long have you been planning that little presentation?"

"Oh," Kim said, joining him on the floor, "since the time Cousin Larry and I put on a little show at the Cow n' Chow. By the way, Wade helped with the fanfare."

"I kind of had that idea!" Ron smirked at her. "All right, Kim...you follow your dream and I'll follow mine, and we'll have each other's back through the whole thing!"

"That's the idea!" she said, placing her chin on Ron's unoccupied shoulder and closing her eyes. The only sound was the soft sound from the TV speakers, now unaccountably turned to a cattle auction on the Rural Channel.

Yes, it was blissfully quiet..._too _quiet!

Kim opened an eye warily to see, as she suspected, a worried look on her lifelong best friend's face.

"Okay, Gloomy Gus. What's the problem _now_?"

"Well, Kim, it's great that you and I are going to support each other's career choices and all, but..."

"Yes?" she inquired with a look of mild annoyance on her face.

"Well...what if _you _choose _one thing_, and _I _choose _another thing_, and those two things are so _different _from each other, or so _far away _from each other that...!"

He was silenced by Kim's fingers on his lips.

"Ron," she told him, looking directly at him with a Look of Great Sincerity that told him she meant whatever she was about to say, "if I were to become an astronaut and you were to become an Ethiopian monk, there would still be nothing in the world that would give me greater happiness than to come home to you every day for the rest of my life."

"Awwwww!" said Rufus, happy for his human boy.

Ron was absolutely, totally dumbfounded. "Y—You mean that?" he managed to squeak after a brief period of working his jaws to no avail.

"Yes Ron. I do. Now stop worrying, okay?"

"Okay, KP," he said, his face fairly beaming. "Your word is good enough for me. I'll stop worrying."

"That's my guy!" she said, laying her head back on his unoccupied shoulder. For a while they said nothing but merely closed their eyes and enjoyed one another's company.

"Of course, you know I'd never become an Ethiopian monk," Ron said eventually.

"I know," Kim said, her head still on his shoulder. "I was just using that as a theoretical example."

"Because I'm Jewish, so I could never become a monk."

"I _know_, Ron."

"And I wouldn't even if I could, because monks can't have wives or girlfriends, and I wouldn't give you up for anything!"

"That's sweet, Ron."

Silence.

"And on top of that," Ron added after a while, "I saw this National Geographic special once, and they said that those Ethiopian monks don't even allow women or girls on their mountain."

Kim lifted her head. "_What?_"

"That's right, KP. No women allowed."

"So they don't have nuns in Ethiopia?"

"Well, not on the same mountain as the monks," Ron said. "Guys only. Yep. It's a man's world!"

Kim stiffened.

"No nuns...no female visitors..."

"That sounds so ferociously sexist!" she said, turning to him with a look of growing tweak on her face.

"Well, it's another culture, Kim. What you gonna do?" he said, shrugging his shoulders, and causing Rufus to go "Hnk!" as he felt a brief jolt.

"Well...I suppose so," she said in defeat. She lay her head back on Ron's shoulder, grateful her man, whatever he decided to do with his life, would not become an Ethiopian monk.

"Not even any female animals."

"_What?_" she said, lifting head back up at once. "Are you _serious?_"

"Totally, Kim. All the sheep, goats, cattle, chickens...have to be males before they're allowed on the mountain. No babes allowed, regardless of species."

Ron could sense something in the air. He opened his eyes and saw that Kim's tweak was building to dangerous levels.

"Rufus ol' buddy," he said discretely to the naked mole rat on his other shoulder, "you might want to seek shelter. I think she's gonna blow!" He reached back and took hold of the couch for support as Rufus dove into a pocket.

Both knew what was coming!

"Okay, _**that's IT!**_" she said, coming from a sitting position to standing on her feet in a single graceful move, much like one of the rockets her father launched so frequently. "Ron, _**suit up! **_We're heading to _**ETHIOPIA!**_"

_**Exeunt**_


	3. Nature Boy

**Scenes from a Summer**

**by "The Enduring Man-Child"**

_**All standard disclaimers apply.**_

**Scene ii—Nature Boy**

Ron looked nervously at Kim. The first time she had looked on the site of her destroyed lifelong home she had understandably broken down. And the girl-who-could-do-anything breaking down was not a pleasant thing to witness.

Now of course things were different. Thanks to their insurance their new house was swiftly on its way to completion. And though it wasn't the same house she had grown up in, it was being built according to a blueprint practically identical to the old one. Ron noticed a tear running down the side of her face and wiped it off gently, grateful to the construction workers for being so far along on their task; when they finally did leave for college they'd be leaving from their own homes. Kim squeezed his hand to thank him and to let him know she was all right.

They took advantage of an enterprising capitalist who had parked his sandwich truck nearby to serve the workers and bought a couple of ethnic treats (he didn't have nacos) and were walking back toward the house again when Ron felt something hit his chest.

He looked down.

And screamed.

Loud.

Rufus panicked and dove into a cargo pocket, zipping it after him.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the heart of Africa, That Scene In Every Safari Movie Ever Made was reenacted. You know the one—the one where all the animals gathered at a large body of water to quench their thirst suddenly panic and take off, along with a large flock of birds that had been peacefully resting on the surface.

Of course what was embarrassing Kim was the stare of all the workers who had stopped what they were doing to see what the emergency was.

The emergency was a very large—make that _huge_—insect now sitting calmly where it had perched on the front of Ron's shirt. No telling how many stingers that thing had just waiting to inject him with Mother Nature's version of concentrated hydrochloric acid while its bill sucked him dry of all his bodily fluids!

Kim's hand reached out and snatched the monster from its perch on Ron's chest and showed it to him.

"Amp down, Ron. It's only a cicada."

"_**Kim! **_What are you doing? Kill it before it kills you!"

Kim rolled her eyes.

"I said it's a _cicada_, Ron!"

Ron stopped screaming. "What's that?"

"Listen."

Kim raised her hand and pointed all around. Ron didn't understand. There was nothing to listen to. The workers had returned to their task after the brief show Ron had put on. There was an occasional car or truck bearing building materials to the various building and repair sites. Other than that there was nothing other than that continual loud hum that seemed to fill the summer air every year at this time for as long as he could remember.

"I don't understand Kim. Aren't you afraid of that thing?"

Kim face-palmed.

"Ron, don't you hear that sound?"

"_What _sound, Kim?" he asked, his eyes still bugged out looking at the creature in Kim's hand, "there _is _no sound except the workers and the traffic and the summer buzz."

"That's what I'm talking about!" Kim told him, "_this _is what makes the summer buzz."

The look of panic on Ron's face was replaced by one of astonishment.

"_That's _what makes that noise?" he asked.

"Uh-huh," Kim said, holding the large insect up to her face and stroking its back gently, "can you imagine a summer without that noise? How lonesome it would be?"

"It's...not dangerous?" he asked.

"No. Not at all."

"It doesn't sting?"

"Nope. It doesn't have a stinger."

"It doesn't bite?"

"No, Ron, it won't bite you. It won't hurt you at all. It's just a big, gentle bug that fills the air with its singing every summer. Do you remember when we were little kids? How we used to look for whatever it was that was making that sound?"

Appropriately enough, when she said this it made a few clicks, sounding somewhat like a thumb rubbed along the ends of the small teeth of a comb.

"Oh, do you want to fly away now?" Kim asked it in a sweet voice.

Ron was calmer now. Even Rufus had reappeared, his face visible in the now unzipped pocket in which he had taken refuge. If Kim said it didn't sting or bite or cause pain in any other way, that was good enough for both of them. Of course there was still the fact that it was a huuuuuuge bug.

"Every time we got under a tree the sound was coming from," Ron remembered, "it would stop and start coming from somewhere else." He fondly recalled his and Kim's fruitless search for the source of the mysterious song.

"That's right, Ron. Well, we always wanted to see one, and here it is."

"Do you think...do you think I could hold it? Just a little while?"

"Of course, Ron. Just promise me that you want get scared and hurt it."

"Okay Kim. I'll be brave," he said.

Kim held the insect out to him. Carefully, Ron took it.

"Now hold it securely enough that it doesn't fly away," she advised, "but don't hold it so tightly that you hurt it."

Ron looked at the "monster" that had frightened him so. He was surprised to see that it actually wasn't as large as it looked. Its wings extended behind far beyond its body, making it look longer than it was. The large wings were clear but with green veins like a leaf might have. On either side of its head were the large compound eyes...though not as large as the eyes of a dragonfly, for example. He was amused and fascinated to see its face looked much like the grille of an old Pontiac. And he found its large bill, with which it fed on tree sap, extending from its mouth backward along its belly.

"Wow..." he said.

While Ron was still "full of childlike wonder," as Nakasumi-san had described him, it had been a long time since things like bugs and spiders and worms and such things had done anything but frighten him. But there had been a time when grasshoppers, butterflies, night crawlers, mole crickets..._any _creature fascinated him. Of course that was before he had suffered his first insect sting and learned to fear everything. But now all that was forgotten. Now something long buried, long forgotten, the joy of the fellowship of Our Fellow Creatures known only to children, returned to him and filled him with wonder.

For a brief moment he, Ron Stoppable, was One With The Universe.

Rufus had now fully emerged and crawled carefully down Ron's arm to see the cicada, brushing it with his nose and causing it to flap its wings and click some more. This startled Ron just enough that he loosened his grip and his captive flew off into the distance, no doubt to join its fellows in a tree somewhere else in town...somewhere at a safe distance from Ron and Rufus.

"See, Ron? That wasn't so bad!" Kim said.

"That was the thing that makes the noise, the thing we could never find when we were little," he murmured.

"It sure was!" she assured him. "You see, Ron? Not everything is out to get you. The world is full of wonderful things like that."

Just then Ron noticed another Huge and Terrifyingly Ugly Bug, this one on Kim's shoulder. "Well what have we here?" he asked, calling her attention to it.

Puzzled, Kim turned her head to take a look. This time _she _screamed.

"Ron! Eeeew! _Getitoff__**getitoffGETITOFF!**__**!**_"

"Sure thing, KP," the now confident Ron said as he calmly took it from her shoulder in his hand. This one was even uglier than the last one had been. He wondered if this one was also the source of a familiar sound or sight whose mystery he had failed to solve.

"Ron, that thing's a _wheel bug_!" Kim warned him, shivering. "Get rid of it...quick!"

"I'm surprised at you, KP!" he replied, full of confidence in his Brotherhood With All Living Things. "Man, would you look at this thing? I mean, the antennae are long enough, but that _bill_...!"

Kim shuddered involuntarily. She knew what was coming.

"_**OUCH!"**_

Meanwhile, somewhere in Africa, recently regathered animals at a watering hole fled in panic once again.

_**Exeunt**_

**Postscript: My beta, rye dot bread, suggested I explain what a wheel bug is. Unfortunately, no description can do one justice. I suggest the reader simply do a Google image or video search for "wheel bug" and prepare to run away screaming. **


	4. Here's Lookin' at YOU, Kid!

**Scenes from a Summer**

**by "The Enduring Man-Child"**

_**All standard disclaimers apply.**_

**Scene iii—Here's Lookin' at _YOU_, Kid!**

It figured. The entire globe decimated by an attack from two super-powered extraterrestrials, and the TV stations, networks, and systems were the first things up and running! After all, people had to have their entertainment.

Kim and Ron were in the Stoppables' living room watching TV. The rest of both families had both gone to bed (the Tweebs had been caught previously spying on their sister and her boyfriend and had been given the scolding of their young lives by their mother—not just because it wasn't a nice thing to do to their sister, but because they were guests in Ron's house. They seemed to behave themselves after that, but with their technical skills there really was no telling.

At present the happy couple were on one of the classic movie channels, watching an old Forties detective picture featuring a very famous leading man of that era. Though neither considered himself (or herself) a "buff" of such films, right now the simpler world from decades past preserved in glorious black and white seemed comforting, a pleasant diversion from the chaotic modern world and its problems—even if the plot was convoluted and hard to follow.

At one point in the movie one of the female characters asked the Famous Male Lead a question: "Is he as pretty as you?" The sleuth's response, without batting an eyelash, was "Nobody is."

Ron lost it. He began to laugh as if he had seen something from a screwball comedy. Not only was his laughter loud, it was prolonged. Every time it seemed that he was about to stop fresh giggles would overtake him and he would soon be guffawing as loudly as ever. Kim looked at him curiously. What on earth was so funny?

"What is it, Ron? Did you hear something I didn't hear? Care to let me in on it?"

Ron tried to collect himself, which wasn't easy. He wiped the tears from his eyes and after several attempts (which failed due to fresh fits of laughter) finally was able to answer her.

"That line!" he told her. "You gotta admit, that's rich! Not only is the idea of a guy saying that about himself ridiculous, but that guy's nothing to write home about. I mean," he continued, "I admit I'm not the number one authority on what girls go for, but even _I _know he ain't it!"

"Oh, I don't know, Ron," Kim replied without thinking too much about it, "he's not fashionably handsome in a pretty-boy way, but I can tell you from a woman's point of view—pardon the expression—YUM!"

Kim returned her attention to the TV and didn't say much, trying to follow the story. After a while she noticed that Ron had finally managed to stop laughing—he wasn't even giggling anymore—and cast a quick look in his direction.

Oh no.

He looked as if he were about to cry.

Kim rolled her eyes. Why is it, she wondered, that when men look at beautiful girls other than their significant other it doesn't mean a thing, but if a woman innocently admires another man it's The Great Betrayal? And could Ron really be so insecure after almost single-handedly saving the entire earth?

Oy. He could.

"Ron," she said to him, "don't take what I said to heart! I was just making a comment about a famous actor who died long before either of us were born. You couldn't possibly be jealous over _that_!"

There was no reply.

"Come on, Ron! Don't be like this! Look—those actresses are pretty. You and I both know they are. You can say that and I won't get upset with you. Why can't you be the same way?"

She heard Ron mumble something.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" she asked. He could be so stubborn sometimes!

"I said I'm not a pretty boy but you never thought that about me," he said at last forlornly.

Kim turned down the volume and slid over beside Ron to give him her full attention. After all, she knew she had been pretty thick about their relationship a few times herself over the years.

"Ron," she said softly and deliberately, "you and I have been best friends all our lives and we've been dating since junior prom. Do you really doubt that I feel that way about you?"

"Sometimes," he said after a moment of silence.

"I'm sorry that I was immature back in the day, but...why would I be going with you if I didn't _like _you? If I didn't find you _attractive_?"

"Um...because I have a nice personality?" he asked sheepishly.

"Ron," she said, "you _do _have a great personality—and that's the most important thing. But—" she added quickly as she saw his head sag again, "don't you know that I think that you're handsome too? Do you really think that you're so unattractive? Why? Why would you think such a thing about yourself?"

Ron didn't know what to say, and truth to tell he felt a little bit ashamed. Why couldn't he put his insecurities behind him? He let Kim continue.

"Ron you said that fellow on TV wasn't a 'pretty-boy,' and you're right. But there's so much more to what makes a guy attractive to a girl than conventional good looks. It's everything about him. And that's what I like about you.

"It's that you've had my back for all these years. It's that you're my hero—shoot, you're the whole _world's _hero! It's your sweet, gentle soul. And your sense of humor. And your chocolate eyes. And your freckles. And your messy blond hair. It's the way you talk, the way you think...it's you're being Ron Stoppable that makes you irresistible to me. Won't you please believe me and stop doubting yourself?" She took his hand. "Remember what Yori said that Sensei said about us? We're _destined _to be together. How many couples can say that? How many have known each other as long as we have, or have a friendship that runs as deep as ours does?" She paused for a moment. "I don't think too many, or else there would be a lot of lawyers out there with a lot of time on their hands."

"So...so I'm not too bad looking compared to him?" Ron asked, pointing at the now muted set.

"He can't hold a candle to you, Ron!" she answered.

Now he was _blushing_.

"Thanks, Kim. Sorry I cause you so much grief. I know that I shouldn't be this way, but the fact is that I'm so plain looking and you're so unbelievably beautiful..."

Kim literally grabbed the sides of Ron's head and forced him to look at her. Her look was seemed very serious. Whatever she was about to say, it must be very important.

"Ron Stoppable, do you know who's prettier than you are?"

Suddenly a lump formed in his throat. What was this? So, all bets were off now?

She looked him straight in the eyes.

"_**Nobody is!"**_

Meanwhile, in the room that was the Tweebs' guest sleeping accommodations, two young conspirators were not sleeping. They gazed at the screen of the Jim/Timmunicator.

"We shouldn't bother 'em, should we?"

"Huh-uh."

And so they were constrained by nobler motives than parental punishment.

_**Exeunt**_

**Thanks to rye dot bread for the beta and for the final scene (the ending was a little clumsy as it was).**

**I apologize for the mush. While I'm a romantic I usually don't write unmitigated mushy stuff, but...well...I did this time. I know absolutely nothing about the female point of view and doubtless got it all wrong, but then we're not dealing with a real girls but with the Beautiful Girl Who Looks Beyond The Outward Appearance, every ugly/dorky guy's dream. And what is Kim if not a dream girl?**

**This series is still ongoing, but I'm going to take a brief hiatus from it to work on something really big. But you never know when the plot bunnies will bite. Thanks for your understanding and support.**


End file.
